Positively Green

The Infection Prevention and Management Team (IPMT) have made waves in the reduction of non-sterile gloves used at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust and have reported a reduction of approximately 630,000 gloves being used between 2023/24 and 2024/25, and a reduction of approximately 16,461 kgCO2e. This is following their yearly campaigns and ward visits focusing on raising awareness of hand hygiene and unnecessary glove use.

Launched by the Royal College of Nurses in 2018, Glove Awareness Week (usually in May) and Great Ormond Street’s ‘Gloves off’ campaign aims to encourage appropriate glove use by raising awareness of sustainability factors and the importance of good skin health. Plus, the World Hand Hygiene   campaign in May this year promoted the strap line ‘It might be gloves but it’s always hand hygiene’. Overuse of gloves can lead to increased cross-contamination risks and skin conditions, such as dermatitis, as well as significant environmental and financial impacts.

Clearly, in some clinical situations it is vital to wear gloves: staff should wear them when in contact with blood or body fluids, non-intact skin, mucous membranes, harmful drugs or chemicals. But gloves are not needed during activities such as:

• touching a patient or washing a patient

• changing a patient’s bed linen (unless visibly soiled)

• pushing a bed or a wheelchair

• Making and handing out hot drinks and meals

• Dispensing medication

• Giving intramuscular (IM) injections

• Taking a patient’s blood pressure

Due to unnecessary glove use, around 1.4 billion gloves are used in the NHS each year, at a cost of £35 million, which seriously contributes to the planet’s plastic and microplastic problem, and the financial burden on the NHS. During the pandemic this increased to 5.1 million gloves. The plastic gloves break down extremely slowly, and when they do, they break down into microplastics which then find their way back into the food chain, adversely affecting human and non-human health. Plastic glove pollution is pervasive as they find their way to beaches, ocean beds and urban environments and cause toxicity to rise in all these ecosystems through the release of additives or absorbed contaminants or pathogens.

As we also celebrate Plastic Free July, this reduction in glove use is excellent news for the targets to reduce clinical single use plastics as outlined in the Trust’s Green Plan. To reward staff in this endeavour, 400 green points are available on Choosing Greener (our staff sustainable behaviour engagement programme) each week for tracking and reducing your glove use at work. Plus, there is a quiz to test your knowledge on appropriate glove use for extra points. Record your sustainable actions, compete with colleagues to top the leader board and win monthly vouchers!

World Health Organisation poster of the environmental impact of gloves:

Environmental impact

• Used medical gloves are treated as infectious waste

• Excessive medical glove use impacts the environment

• Saves lives and the environment: clean your hands